This blog is designed to let the Interfaith Garden volunteers communicate with each other.
Please read the blog each week before you go to the garden in case there are observations or instructions that apply to you.
All volunteers are welcome to post! To post an entry, click on EDIT, position the cursor where you want to begin typing, hit ENTER a couple of times to create space, post your entry, then click on SAVE. Include the date and your name so we'll know who is posting.
Sunday, November 29 (Gail & Debbie)
Fertilized, harvested and started working on the frost protection for beds 1 & 2.
Sunday, November 22 (Gail, Vicki, Greg)
We fertilized, harvested, and pulled tons of weeds! Made plans for work party during Mitzvah Day to add DG to the pathways.
Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Sunday, November 15 (Gail & Vicki)
We worked quickly to beat the rain! Harvested a bit of brocolli, fertilized and weeded. Roy came by and said the brocolli heads are small due to the weather.
He also said we need to increase fertilizing to twice a week if possible.
Thursday, November 12 (Suzanne)
Planted veronica cauliflower in bed one...that's the kind of cauliflower that has spiral shaped heads. The soil in bed 1 looked good and no bugs were present. Everything else looked good. Warning: At the Poway garden club meeting yesterday, one of the members warned of meningitis being spread by snails in Florida (who feed on rat feces), so we should be using the snail bait regularly. If you touch a snail with your hands, wash them off.
Sunday, November 8th ( Gail, Vicki, Debbie, Greg)
We planted broccoli and cauliflower in beds 9 & 10. Fertilized, harvested a little bit of broccoli and lots of weeding.
Thursday, November 5 (Suzanne)
Harvested one broccoli head and one pumpkin. I hope it was time to take the pumpkin...it was small but orange, and the feeder vine was dried up. Not sure why the broccoli heads are so small. I could've taken another head but it was so small that I left it in hopes that it will be larger and still tasty by Sunday. It's much drier in the garden. I noticed that the water came on about 8:45 a.m. and made a screeching noise like an osprey when it first started up. I saw notes in the cabinet that someone fed all of the beds fish emulsion this week. Most of the new plants are still hanging in there although the lettuce in the northeast end of the raised bed looks like it may not make it.
Sunday, November 1st (Gail, Vicki, Debbie)
We fertilized, weeded and harvested butternut squash. I replaced the hose nozzle and figured out (I think) The water issue. Most of the puddles were caused by run off from the raised bed. Josh decreased the duration and frequency of the irrigation.
Thursday, October 29 (Suzanne)
Did a little weeding in bed 4 where the weeds are aggressive. There is still a puddle in front of bed 11 but it's much less muddy in the garden. The lettuce in raised bed 2 is still alive but it's hard to tell if it's getting enough water. A broccoli head is visible now so we may be harvesting soon.
Sunday, October 25 (Suzanne)
Planted some lettuce in the raised bed 2. Difficulties included the lack of a hose nozzle, mud and puddles between beds 2 and 7, and short arms making it impossible to reach the middle of the bed to plant lettuce. So, I planted where I could reach and watered the bed as best as I could -- whether it got wet enough is difficult to say. The soil in the bed was very spongy and seemed to have mulch mixed in so, in some spots, the water didn't penetrate very far into the bed. I watered using the watering can into the holes for the really dry spots.
Thursday, October 22 (Suzanne)
Trimmed some leaves. Noticed that the ground is still wet by bed 10 due to a leak at the fitting and also noticed dampness between some of the beds. Although I didn't do an exhaustive search, I couldn't find the smaller snippers (kind of needle nose profile) which come in handy in tight areas of the plants.
Sunday, October 18th (Gail) Planted cauliflower in bed 8, then took advantage of the perfect weather to clean up and pull weeds.
Saturday, October 17th (Gail & Volunteer Team)
Today we refurbished the rest of the beds thanks to the many volunteers! We then assessed the leaks in the irrigation which Mickey will repair Tuesday.
Thursday, October 15 (Gail)
Water puddling to the north of bed number 11 has been an ongoing issue for some time. I am told it has to do with the clay soil not draining and the slope of the bed. I am anything but an expert so I'e gone with that answer! I turned the irrigation off in that bed this morning so unless we get rain tonight, it that should dry out. The cabbages looked gorgeous. Thank you Suzanne!
Thursday, October 15 (Suzanne)
Planted ruby perfection cabbage in the two beds where the cauliflower had been planted. Some of the cauliflower plants had survived, so I transplanted them to one side of the bed and filled the rest with the cabbage. There were lots of pill bugs and tiny white bugs (possibly pill bug larvae?) throughout the soil. The soil was very damp and a puddle has formed near the middle of the garden but outside the herb bed.
Sunday, October 11 (Gail, Vicki & Debbie)
We harvested the last of the zucchini and pulled the plants in preparation for Saturday's refurbishing. The butternut squash is beginning to ripen and we harvested what was ready. Fertilized the beds and did lots of weeding!
Sunday, October 4th (Gail)
It's a wet one today! I managed to harvest lots of squash and pull a few weeds before the big rains came.
Sunday, September 27th
We harvested, weeded and pulled old tomato plants getting ready for the refurbishment.
A huge THANK YOU to Greg Gocal from Temple Adat Shalom for replacing our broken irrigation controller/timer!
Sunday, September 20th (Gail & Debbie)
It was a hot day today!! We managed to plant bed 11 with cabbage, a vegetable we were unsuccessful with in our first season. Now that I know about Sluggo, we should have much better luck! We also attempted to re-set the controller and repair the irrigation.
Sunday, September 13 (Gail, Vicki, Debbie)
We planted more Packman Broccoli in bed 4 and replaced the few plants that didn't make it from the previous week.
Friday, September 11 (Gail)
I watered the new plants and took inventory for replacements. I cleaned up the dead leaves from the pumpkin patch. Thanks to all of your hard work the garden looks fantastic!
Tuesday, September 8 (Celeste)
Not enough to harvest. Checked moisture on new beds; all good. Weeded pumpkin patch.
Monday September 7 (Gail, Vicki, Suzanne)
Yesterday was a very productive day! Along with harvesting tomatoes and squash we were able to plant 3 beds and the herb garden. Bed 12 has Pacman Broccoli, Bed 6 has Cheddar Cauliflower, and Bed 7 has a white Cauliflower.
Monday August 31 (Gail)
Planting will be postponed until Sunday. All are welcome to join in the fun!
Sunday August 30 (Gail & Debbie, Suzanne stopped by too)
We harvested lots of tomatoes and squash today so the Tuesday team can focus on planting. We also marked the stems of the Butternut Squash and Pumpkins to make it easier to water and fertilize.
Friday, August 28 (Gail)
I met with Saundra this morning and am happy to report everything looks great! The pumpkin and butternut need a little extra water due to the heat. She also recommends delaying planting until next Tuesday. Thanks for the heads up!
Thursday, August 27 (Suzanne, Tammy, Chuck)
Chuck had come and gone by the time that Suzanne and Tammy got to the garden. Tammy harvested some tomatoes and we weeded as long as we could in this heat. The weeds that were in piles around the garden were bagged and placed in the wheelbarrow with another bag of weeds. Warning: Looks like a perfect storm is brewing -- starting October Suzanne will be working for a month and will be unable to come to the garden, Tammy will be unable to put in hours, and Chuck is having surgery. Rut-roh...
Thanks to Gail for giving us a garden diagram! Comment from Jane -- Thank you for these "heads ups," Suzanne. A slight correction. Chuck's surgery is Sept 3 and he'll be out 3 weeks, so that really affects Sept rather than Oct. I believe Chuck does only harvesting, though, so you're right that if you and Tammy can't come in Oct, we need to keep our fingers crossed that Gail has been able to recruit some help by then.
Tuesday, August 25 (Celeste)
Mini harvest (one tomato, three squash, chives and basil), logged in book, left by kitchen door. Weeded and trimmed squash. Heads up: left the open container of bleach solution in shed by bleach bottle.
Sunday, August 23 Gail & Vicki
It was a lovely day to be in the garden! Vicki and I harvested, weeded and did a bit of clean up. I placed a garden diagram with the beds by number on the clipboard. We have a new location for distribution so please leave your harvest by the kitchen door.
Have a great week!
Thursday, August 20 (Suzanne, Chuck, Renee)
Chuck harvested and left the produce by the kitchen door. We pulled a couple of dead tomato plants and cut back the squash. We continued the never-ending weeding -- the garden looks so much better thanks to all of the volunteers and their hard work. It would be great to see what the master plan is for the garden, such as more raised beds (?), fall crop plan, etc.
Update- August 17 (Gail)
Extreme weather brings extremely awesome volunteers! The refurbished beds look amazing and were definitely a team effort. We should be ready to begin our fall planting in about 3 weeks.
I finally received an update from Roy regarding the Light Brown Apple Moth. Sadly we are within (but just barely!) the area of quarantine in San Diego/Rancho Bernardo. This means that we cannot remove our harvest from the quarantine area. The good news is we are almost at the end of our growing season and the experts feel this will end shortly. We need to continue to harvest, but leave the vegetables in the kitchen, or by the kitchen door. These will then be distributed to those within the boundaries of the quarantine.
Notes for this week's tasks are on the clipboard as well as information regarding the Light Brown Apple Moth.
Number signs for the beds should be up next week.
Thanks for all of your efforts!
Note from Jane on Sunday, Aug 16 - A wonderful team of volunteers organized by Robin Kaufman and the RB Community Council came on Saturday and refurbished six of the beds, including filling the new raised bed designed by Gail and installed by Chuck Bakan. Here is the result. A big thank you to you, our team of regulars, for all the preparations you made for this day.
Thursday, Aug 13 (Chuck, Suzanne and Renee)
Chuck harvested and had already come and gone by 8:30. Luckily Gail and Bruce came by to verify the rows where they wanted the plants removed. Gail will provide a map of the garden so we don't have to find the names for each bed. We trimmed the squash, fed the plants noted, cleared two beds for refurbishment prep, and weeded...then it got too hot to work. The diseased plants were placed in trash bags and the healthy ones were put in the compost bin. Bruce was working on the raised beds and it looks like the new garden will be really sharp.
Sunday, Aug 9 - Vicki (with Gail)
Harvest:
Green Squash 13#
Yellow Squash 1#
Cherry Tomatoes 1#
Tomatoes 2#
I pulled the green beans. Gail and I weeded for a bit (until my back was aching!). It would be great if the Tuesday team would fertilize all but the beds that are being turned on Saturday.
I am glad the number signs are coming - they will be very helpful.
Note from Jane on Thursday, Aug 6 - Roy walked the garden yesterday to make a final decision about which beds to refurbish on Saturday, August 15. He turned off the water in these beds. Some are obvious because they having nothing growing in them, but a few still have plants in them, so you'll see them fading away, and we ask that you do final harvesting and pull out the plants before the August 15 refurbishment. The affected beds are:
Bed 2 - Asher (being converted to a raised bed)
Bed 4 - Dan
Bed 6 - Naphtali
Bed 7 - Gad
Bed 11 - Benjamin
Bed 12 - Simeon
Thank you!
By the way, a volunteer has made NUMBER signs for the beds. They still need to be installed on the bed signs, but they're coming!.
Tuesday, Aug 4 (Celeste, Mickey)
Gusher underway in Asher upon arrival, couldn't locate shutoff valves. Once watering stopped, Mickey repaired broken lines in Asher. He has offered to either put in a ball valve on main line for emergency general shutoff or butterfly shutoffs at each garden station. Noted that there's constant wet spot in middle of garden in front of Benjamin, may be leak in line? Harvested (wrote totals in daily log).
Sunday, Aug 2 (posted by Vicki with Debbie in the garden)
Today's harvest:
Tomatoes: 7 #
Cherry tomatoes 1.5 #
Basil 2.5 #
Green beans .75
In addition to the harvest, I fertilized all beds with FE and trimmed all the basil to within a few inches as most of the plants were in flower. The beans are not really producing so maybe we should pull the plants. I will leave that to Saundra.
Thank you to Debbie who delivered the harvest to Interfaith Community Services.
The garden is much happier looking now that we have so many capable and giving volunteers. I can't say enough how much I appreciate your diligence.
Wednesday, July 29 (Jane) -- I've ordered a new padlock for the tool shed. I found one that doesn't require you to be a contortionist to see the dial. I'll install it as soon as it arrives.
Tuesday, July 28 (Celeste, Mickey)
Harvested, pulled remaining leeks from Benjamin(?) so it's cleared for planting. Editorial note: Thai basil is beautiful! (Posted harvest in garden log, will skip posting here.)
Cleaned up some of squash plants. Weed, weed, weed... Mickey was still weeding when I left.
Monday, July 28 (Gail)
I apologize for not posting this weeks updated "to-do" list in the shed. Please follow last weeks directions for harvesting and weeding. No need to fertilize this week.
Thanks!
Sunday, July 26 (Gail, Vicki, Debbie)
What a joy and relief to have the support of this incredible team! The garden looks amazing!! We harvested tomatoes, squash, beans and basil filling the last crate. I'll drop off more crates before Tuesday morning and try to get some small plastic produce bags as well. We emptied most of the weeds from the wheelbarrow into a bag which I took home today. I noticed the concentric circle damage; what is the cause and is there a remedy?
Thank you Celeste and Mickey for replacing and repairing the hose nozzle. I tightened the fitting on the hose bib today so no more water leaks. I have a lid for the bucket I brought over a couple of weeks ago so that should be functional going forward. The lock has been a source of frustration since the beginning. I have looked for a one piece lock with a longer shaft without success but I will step up my efforts. If anyone knows where to purchase that type, please let me know!
Looking forward to meeting Saundra on Tuesday!
Thanks to you all!
Thursday, July 23 (Suzanne, Chuck)
We harvested and trimmed back some of the squash. The lock on the cabinet needs replacing with one that has a longer hook -- it's a major frustration trying to get the thing to work. Also put the bag of squash trim in front of the trash area which was locked. I didn't write down the harvest because we're keeping a log at the garden...is the tally being used here? Replies from Jane:
1) I'm sorry I failed to explain about the green waste. The trash company does not pick up green waste from the Temple. Gail takes it home to be picked up there. So please just bag it and leave it by the tool shed for Gail.
2) Yes, I noticed that we had two different systems going for reporting the harvest -- some people report it here, some log it in the little book at the garden. It's OK with me to log it only at the garden. I can get it from there at the end of the month.
3) I agree that the lock is a challenge. Gail -- can you provide a lock that's easier to use?
Tuesday, July 21 (Celeste, Mickey)
Harvest:
tomatoes - 5.5 lb
cherry tomatoes - 4 oz
squash - 4.5 lb
beans - .75 lb
chive/thai basil - 3 oz
Brought my old nozzle for the hose, but found that the previous nozzle is broken off at the threading. Mickey is going to come back today with a hacksaw to get the corroded piece off.
Weeded all around. The wheelbarrow was already full and didn't see any trash bin, so Mickey just hauled all the weeds away for this week. Please advise on proper disposal. Reply from Jane -- Thanks for your good work, Celeste and Mickey! There are trash bags on the top shelf in the tool shed. You can put weeds in those. I think our Scout Ben got chased out of by rain on Sunday before he could do that. Gail hauls the bags home to put in her green waste, but if someone else wants to do so, that's a big help too! Thank you.
Left open bleach solution by water faucet for reuse by next crew. I will try to get back there today with a container that has a lid.
Number of tomatoes have concentric circle damage. Got some bagrada bugs and snails.
Sunday, July 19 - Vicki
First of all, I would like to thank Jane and our Master Gardener, Saundra for caring and taking on this awesome responsibility. The homeless vets and Temple Adat Shalom are forever in your debt. Thanks also to Ben for weeding. The rains brought many new weeds so we really appreciate it.
Can I make a request of anyone who reads this? The hose nozzle broke off this morning as I was fertilizing, so if anyone has a spare nozzle they wouldn't mind parting with, we could really use one. It is a pain to have to shut the water off each time we fill up the watering can.
I fertilized all planted areas with FE and delivered the harvest to the North County Interfaith Center.
It is so nice having all of our volunteers - knowing that the veggies will be harvested regularly is very satisfying! Thank you all for stepping up!
Friday, July 17 (Jane)
More good news! Ben Nichols, Eagle Scout candidate and son of Backyard Produce Garden member Sandy Strong, has agreed to do some major weeding in the Interfaith Garden this weekend. Looking forward to seeing what he can accomplish. AND . . . the seeds have arrived for the fall planting -- broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, lettuce, kale, bok choi. Gail is going to plant them in seedling trays in Roy's greenhouse this week so the seedlings will be ready for the planned September 1 planting date.
Tuesday, July 14 (Jane)
We are delighted to welcome Saundra Pennington, a Certified Master Gardener, who has agreed to be our expert adviser for the garden. Thank you, Saundra! That will help us a lot. AND -- harvesters! -- we found out today that some of the tomatoes are YELLOW tomatoes (variety Lemon Boy), not red ones, so the instructions to wait for them to turn red are wrong. Bed 1 (Zebulum) and Bed 9 (Isaachar) contain some of these plants. The time to harvest them is when they turn bright yellow.
Tuesday, July 14 (Suzanne)
Harvest:
Tomato - 6.2 lb
Cherry tomato - 3 oz
Zucchini - 4.3 lb
Yellow squash - 7 oz
Trimmed the squash, removed some eaten tomatoes and took bags of trash to the trash bin.
Sunday, July 12 (Jane)
I stopped by the garden this morning to install this week's instruction sheet. Debi Pope was there, harvesting and weeding. Chuck Bakan came to see the garden and talk about Gail's idea of converting one or more beds to raised beds. Chuck will work on some ideas and then meet with Gail.
Friday, July 10 (Jane)
Just back from an excellent walk-through of the garden with Roy Wilburn, our mentor. Roy extends his congratulations to the team on your excellent work. He gave his guidance on each bed for the coming week, which I'll translate into instructions again, but the bottom line is -- keep harvesting, trim the lower leaves of the squash as you harvest, fertilize everything every other week (so not this week), and continue to make progress with the weeding.
We did a second round of the garden to plan ahead for the fall crops. Roy recommends broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, bok choy, lettuce, and kale. Based on his guidelines, I'll figure out how many seeds to order and place the order. Let me know if you'd like to participate in planting the seeds in trays in Roy's greenhouse to raise the seedlings for the garden. He'll show us how.
A bed-refurbishment day is planned for Saturday, August 15, 7:45-9:00 a.m. to prepare the beds for the next planting. Robin Kaufman has recruited a one-day team to do the refurbishment, but we're welcome to take part. Let me know if you'd like to do that. Refurbishment consists of adding a variety of soll amendments to prepare the soil for the next planting. Roy thinks half the beds will be ready to be refurbished at that time, and the other half a month later. NOTE that weed removal in advance of that day is our main job, so please keep after that big job.
On Tues, Sept 1 and T probably Thurs, Sept 3, we'll plant the fall seedlings in the refurbished beds. Then we WAIT and keep things tidy.
After Roy left, I did some weeding. I use our new hoe (thanks, Gail) to remove some of the ground-hugging weeds In Bed 2 (Asher) (I believe it's called spurge). Then I dug out some of the upright weeds in Bed 4 (Dan). For those, I used a hand tool at the garden tool shed labelled Fiskar Ergo-Friendly Weeder. It did quite well at loosening the soil so the entire tap root could be pulled up. I did about the first 3 feet of the Dan bed. Fun fun fun.
Thanks for all your great work.
Thursday, July 9 (Suzanne, Tammy, Rene)
Sprayed all squash with Serenade. Weeded and spotted numerous bagrada bugs living under the weed carpet.
Addendum by Jane: Chuck and Susie harvested and delivered to Interfaith. Harvest amounts are in the notebook at the garden, yet to be posted here.
Tuesday, July 7 (Celeste)
chives/thai basis: 2 oz
tomatoes: 1 lb
cherry tomatoes: .5 lb
zucchini: .75 lb
Left harvest in kitchen. Got some twine from them to bundle chives. Can we get bags?
Couldn't find Serenade; there is 3-in-1 organicide in shed. Use in place of Serenade?
Cleaned up under cherry tomatoes, weeded Gad. Bleached clippers. Reply from Jane: Gail tried to buy Serenade at Home Depot but they don't have it. She's going to try at Grangetto's. Let's wait for that. I can drop off some plastic grocery bags if that's what you're picturing.
Sunday, July 5th (Gail)
It was amazing walking into the garden this morning and seeing all the work that has been done!! Thank you to all of the volunteers! This morning I planted the pumpkin seedlings and we harvested squash, tomatoes and green beans. The tomatoes are finally ripening and we should have a lot to harvest in the next few weeks, even without all of the plants that were pulled due to disease. Vicki fertilized with the fish emulsion and recorded that on the fabulous instruction sheet that Jane created.
Friday, July 3 (Suzanne)
Pruned all of the squash plants. This helps three fold: 1) several leaves with powdery mildew were removed, 2) it allows air through the plant and will discourage more powdery mildew, 3) it allows more plant energy to go towards fruit growth. Roy says to take the supporting leaf when harvesting a squash...this will keep the plant foliage thinned out. I also pulled another tomato plant infected with curly top disease...it looks like the one next to it is the next to go...sigh.
Here are some before and after pics of the squash:
Before pruning
After pruning
Close-up of snake-like effect of pruned squash
Thursday, July 2 (Suzanne)
During our garden walkthrough with Roy this morning, he noticed that a couple of the tomato plants had curly top disease. We pulled the plants and threw them in the trash, not the compost pile (the same goes for any diseased plant material). Some of the literature says they should be placed in a bag and sealed up to prevent further contamination. For those of you who are interested, here's a picture and an article on the disease: http://www.veggiegardener.com/diseases/curly-top-virus/
Tomato plant with curly top disease -- remove and discard
Thursday July 2nd. (posted by Gail Cohn)
A HUGE THANK YOU to Jane and all of the volunteers who came out to help this week! I truly am overcome with gratitude for your generosity of time and talent. With our collective efforts I believe this garden will reach its potential to be an amazing source of fresh, organic vegetables for the food insecure in North County. When it comes to creating a garden, it definitely "takes a village"!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Welcome! I want to thank Jane and the wonderful volunteers who have agreed to come tend to the Interfaith Garden. Temple Adat Shalom really appreciates the help in ensuring that the garden will continue to be successful.Also, a huge thank you to Gail Cohen whose tireless efforts grew the garden to its current stage. With community effort, I know this garden will be what we all dreamed it would become! - Vicki (volunteer)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Thursday, July 2 (Posted by Jane) -- Also present were Suzanne, Tammy, Sue Ann, Chuck, Larry, Rene, Gail, and mentor Roy Wilburn
We had a wonderful session in the garden this morning. Many thanks to all who came and to Roy Wilburn, who walked us through the garden and gave specific guidance on each bed.
Team members who could stay harvested the crops and also did trimming and weeding.
Chuck weighed and delivered the harvest to Interfaith Community Services.
Suzanne began trimming off the lower zucchini leaves.
Larry began trimming back the herbs to encourage new growth.
Gail will purchase Serenade, a spray that fights powdery mildew on squash.
Suzanne will purchase more clippers to help with the harvesting.
Gail will bring a bucket with lid that can serve as a reusable bleach bath for the tools (to keep from spreading any diseases in the garden).
I've written up the notes I took on Roy's guidance and turned them into instructions for the team. I'll post them inside the tool shed. Here's a copy -- click on Download to view it.
Everyone -- feel free to add thoughts, observations, and questions. Note that the weeding is a long-term project. No one is expecting instant results.
Thank you so much!
Tuesday, June 30 (Celeste)
yellow squash: 2.5 lb
zucchini: .75 lb
cherry tomatoes: 2 oz
(missed the beans!)
Left tally in the log book with scale, harvest on the table in kitchen, as agreed. Wiped clippers with cloth but didn't disinfect, no bucket yet.
Note: may not be worth 2 harvest days a week until tomatoes come in, but one of the days could be maintenance to get ahead of weeds.
Tuesday, June 30 - posted by Jane - Initial entry
Today was the first day that Backyard Produce volunteers helped in the Interfaith Community Garden. We congratulate Gail Cohn on all she has accomplished in the garden. Celeste came today, representing the Tuesday team. Gail walked Celeste and me through the garden. Suzanne stopped by with clippers and towels. Celeste stayed to harvest. It was already hot by 8:30! I wrote down some questions to run by Roy. I'll post the answers when get them. Gail has posted procedures inside the tool shed. She'll do another orientation on Thursday for the Thursday team. There isn't a lot to harvest yet -- several varieties of summer squash and a few bush beans -- but the tomatoes are coming along nicely. I welcome your observations. Tree picking team -- there is an apple tree on either side of the garden. You can include the apples in the harvest if you wish.
Please read the blog each week before you go to the garden in case there are observations or instructions that apply to you.
All volunteers are welcome to post! To post an entry, click on EDIT, position the cursor where you want to begin typing, hit ENTER a couple of times to create space, post your entry, then click on SAVE. Include the date and your name so we'll know who is posting.
Sunday, November 29 (Gail & Debbie)
Fertilized, harvested and started working on the frost protection for beds 1 & 2.
Sunday, November 22 (Gail, Vicki, Greg)
We fertilized, harvested, and pulled tons of weeds! Made plans for work party during Mitzvah Day to add DG to the pathways.
Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Sunday, November 15 (Gail & Vicki)
We worked quickly to beat the rain! Harvested a bit of brocolli, fertilized and weeded. Roy came by and said the brocolli heads are small due to the weather.
He also said we need to increase fertilizing to twice a week if possible.
Thursday, November 12 (Suzanne)
Planted veronica cauliflower in bed one...that's the kind of cauliflower that has spiral shaped heads. The soil in bed 1 looked good and no bugs were present. Everything else looked good. Warning: At the Poway garden club meeting yesterday, one of the members warned of meningitis being spread by snails in Florida (who feed on rat feces), so we should be using the snail bait regularly. If you touch a snail with your hands, wash them off.
Sunday, November 8th ( Gail, Vicki, Debbie, Greg)
We planted broccoli and cauliflower in beds 9 & 10. Fertilized, harvested a little bit of broccoli and lots of weeding.
Thursday, November 5 (Suzanne)
Harvested one broccoli head and one pumpkin. I hope it was time to take the pumpkin...it was small but orange, and the feeder vine was dried up. Not sure why the broccoli heads are so small. I could've taken another head but it was so small that I left it in hopes that it will be larger and still tasty by Sunday. It's much drier in the garden. I noticed that the water came on about 8:45 a.m. and made a screeching noise like an osprey when it first started up. I saw notes in the cabinet that someone fed all of the beds fish emulsion this week. Most of the new plants are still hanging in there although the lettuce in the northeast end of the raised bed looks like it may not make it.
Sunday, November 1st (Gail, Vicki, Debbie)
We fertilized, weeded and harvested butternut squash. I replaced the hose nozzle and figured out (I think) The water issue. Most of the puddles were caused by run off from the raised bed. Josh decreased the duration and frequency of the irrigation.
Thursday, October 29 (Suzanne)
Did a little weeding in bed 4 where the weeds are aggressive. There is still a puddle in front of bed 11 but it's much less muddy in the garden. The lettuce in raised bed 2 is still alive but it's hard to tell if it's getting enough water. A broccoli head is visible now so we may be harvesting soon.
Sunday, October 25 (Suzanne)
Planted some lettuce in the raised bed 2. Difficulties included the lack of a hose nozzle, mud and puddles between beds 2 and 7, and short arms making it impossible to reach the middle of the bed to plant lettuce. So, I planted where I could reach and watered the bed as best as I could -- whether it got wet enough is difficult to say. The soil in the bed was very spongy and seemed to have mulch mixed in so, in some spots, the water didn't penetrate very far into the bed. I watered using the watering can into the holes for the really dry spots.
Thursday, October 22 (Suzanne)
Trimmed some leaves. Noticed that the ground is still wet by bed 10 due to a leak at the fitting and also noticed dampness between some of the beds. Although I didn't do an exhaustive search, I couldn't find the smaller snippers (kind of needle nose profile) which come in handy in tight areas of the plants.
Sunday, October 18th (Gail)
Planted cauliflower in bed 8, then took advantage of the perfect weather to clean up and pull weeds.
Saturday, October 17th (Gail & Volunteer Team)
Today we refurbished the rest of the beds thanks to the many volunteers! We then assessed the leaks in the irrigation which Mickey will repair Tuesday.
Thursday, October 15 (Gail)
Water puddling to the north of bed number 11 has been an ongoing issue for some time. I am told it has to do with the clay soil not draining and the slope of the bed. I am anything but an expert so I'e gone with that answer! I turned the irrigation off in that bed this morning so unless we get rain tonight, it that should dry out. The cabbages looked gorgeous. Thank you Suzanne!
Thursday, October 15 (Suzanne)
Planted ruby perfection cabbage in the two beds where the cauliflower had been planted. Some of the cauliflower plants had survived, so I transplanted them to one side of the bed and filled the rest with the cabbage. There were lots of pill bugs and tiny white bugs (possibly pill bug larvae?) throughout the soil. The soil was very damp and a puddle has formed near the middle of the garden but outside the herb bed.
Sunday, October 11 (Gail, Vicki & Debbie)
We harvested the last of the zucchini and pulled the plants in preparation for Saturday's refurbishing. The butternut squash is beginning to ripen and we harvested what was ready. Fertilized the beds and did lots of weeding!
Sunday, October 4th (Gail)
It's a wet one today! I managed to harvest lots of squash and pull a few weeds before the big rains came.
Sunday, September 27th
We harvested, weeded and pulled old tomato plants getting ready for the refurbishment.
A huge THANK YOU to Greg Gocal from Temple Adat Shalom for replacing our broken irrigation controller/timer!
Sunday, September 20th (Gail & Debbie)
It was a hot day today!! We managed to plant bed 11 with cabbage, a vegetable we were unsuccessful with in our first season. Now that I know about Sluggo, we should have much better luck! We also attempted to re-set the controller and repair the irrigation.
Sunday, September 13 (Gail, Vicki, Debbie)
We planted more Packman Broccoli in bed 4 and replaced the few plants that didn't make it from the previous week.
Friday, September 11 (Gail)
I watered the new plants and took inventory for replacements. I cleaned up the dead leaves from the pumpkin patch. Thanks to all of your hard work the garden looks fantastic!
Tuesday, September 8 (Celeste)
Not enough to harvest. Checked moisture on new beds; all good. Weeded pumpkin patch.
Monday September 7 (Gail, Vicki, Suzanne)
Yesterday was a very productive day! Along with harvesting tomatoes and squash we were able to plant 3 beds and the herb garden. Bed 12 has Pacman Broccoli, Bed 6 has Cheddar Cauliflower, and Bed 7 has a white Cauliflower.
Monday August 31 (Gail)
Planting will be postponed until Sunday. All are welcome to join in the fun!
Sunday August 30 (Gail & Debbie, Suzanne stopped by too)
We harvested lots of tomatoes and squash today so the Tuesday team can focus on planting. We also marked the stems of the Butternut Squash and Pumpkins to make it easier to water and fertilize.
Friday, August 28 (Gail)
I met with Saundra this morning and am happy to report everything looks great! The pumpkin and butternut need a little extra water due to the heat. She also recommends delaying planting until next Tuesday. Thanks for the heads up!
Thursday, August 27 (Suzanne, Tammy, Chuck)
Chuck had come and gone by the time that Suzanne and Tammy got to the garden. Tammy harvested some tomatoes and we weeded as long as we could in this heat. The weeds that were in piles around the garden were bagged and placed in the wheelbarrow with another bag of weeds.
Warning: Looks like a perfect storm is brewing -- starting October Suzanne will be working for a month and will be unable to come to the garden, Tammy will be unable to put in hours, and Chuck is having surgery. Rut-roh...
Thanks to Gail for giving us a garden diagram!
Comment from Jane -- Thank you for these "heads ups," Suzanne. A slight correction. Chuck's surgery is Sept 3 and he'll be out 3 weeks, so that really affects Sept rather than Oct. I believe Chuck does only harvesting, though, so you're right that if you and Tammy can't come in Oct, we need to keep our fingers crossed that Gail has been able to recruit some help by then.
Tuesday, August 25 (Celeste)
Mini harvest (one tomato, three squash, chives and basil), logged in book, left by kitchen door. Weeded and trimmed squash. Heads up: left the open container of bleach solution in shed by bleach bottle.
Sunday, August 23 Gail & Vicki
It was a lovely day to be in the garden! Vicki and I harvested, weeded and did a bit of clean up. I placed a garden diagram with the beds by number on the clipboard. We have a new location for distribution so please leave your harvest by the kitchen door.
Have a great week!
Thursday, August 20 (Suzanne, Chuck, Renee)
Chuck harvested and left the produce by the kitchen door. We pulled a couple of dead tomato plants and cut back the squash. We continued the never-ending weeding -- the garden looks so much better thanks to all of the volunteers and their hard work. It would be great to see what the master plan is for the garden, such as more raised beds (?), fall crop plan, etc.
Update- August 17 (Gail)
Extreme weather brings extremely awesome volunteers! The refurbished beds look amazing and were definitely a team effort. We should be ready to begin our fall planting in about 3 weeks.
I finally received an update from Roy regarding the Light Brown Apple Moth. Sadly we are within (but just barely!) the area of quarantine in San Diego/Rancho Bernardo. This means that we cannot remove our harvest from the quarantine area. The good news is we are almost at the end of our growing season and the experts feel this will end shortly. We need to continue to harvest, but leave the vegetables in the kitchen, or by the kitchen door. These will then be distributed to those within the boundaries of the quarantine.
Notes for this week's tasks are on the clipboard as well as information regarding the Light Brown Apple Moth.
Number signs for the beds should be up next week.
Thanks for all of your efforts!
Note from Jane on Sunday, Aug 16 - A wonderful team of volunteers organized by Robin Kaufman and the RB Community Council came on Saturday and refurbished six of the beds, including filling the new raised bed designed by Gail and installed by Chuck Bakan. Here is the result. A big thank you to you, our team of regulars, for all the preparations you made for this day.
Thursday, Aug 13 (Chuck, Suzanne and Renee)
Chuck harvested and had already come and gone by 8:30. Luckily Gail and Bruce came by to verify the rows where they wanted the plants removed. Gail will provide a map of the garden so we don't have to find the names for each bed. We trimmed the squash, fed the plants noted, cleared two beds for refurbishment prep, and weeded...then it got too hot to work. The diseased plants were placed in trash bags and the healthy ones were put in the compost bin. Bruce was working on the raised beds and it looks like the new garden will be really sharp.
Sunday, Aug 9 - Vicki (with Gail)
Harvest:
Green Squash 13#
Yellow Squash 1#
Cherry Tomatoes 1#
Tomatoes 2#
I pulled the green beans. Gail and I weeded for a bit (until my back was aching!). It would be great if the Tuesday team would fertilize all but the beds that are being turned on Saturday.
I am glad the number signs are coming - they will be very helpful.
Note from Jane on Thursday, Aug 6 - Roy walked the garden yesterday to make a final decision about which beds to refurbish on Saturday, August 15. He turned off the water in these beds. Some are obvious because they having nothing growing in them, but a few still have plants in them, so you'll see them fading away, and we ask that you do final harvesting and pull out the plants before the August 15 refurbishment. The affected beds are:
Bed 2 - Asher (being converted to a raised bed)
Bed 4 - Dan
Bed 6 - Naphtali
Bed 7 - Gad
Bed 11 - Benjamin
Bed 12 - Simeon
Thank you!
By the way, a volunteer has made NUMBER signs for the beds. They still need to be installed on the bed signs, but they're coming!.
Tuesday, Aug 4 (Celeste, Mickey)
Gusher underway in Asher upon arrival, couldn't locate shutoff valves. Once watering stopped, Mickey repaired broken lines in Asher. He has offered to either put in a ball valve on main line for emergency general shutoff or butterfly shutoffs at each garden station. Noted that there's constant wet spot in middle of garden in front of Benjamin, may be leak in line? Harvested (wrote totals in daily log).
Sunday, Aug 2 (posted by Vicki with Debbie in the garden)
Today's harvest:
Tomatoes: 7 #
Cherry tomatoes 1.5 #
Basil 2.5 #
Green beans .75
In addition to the harvest, I fertilized all beds with FE and trimmed all the basil to within a few inches as most of the plants were in flower. The beans are not really producing so maybe we should pull the plants. I will leave that to Saundra.
Thank you to Debbie who delivered the harvest to Interfaith Community Services.
The garden is much happier looking now that we have so many capable and giving volunteers. I can't say enough how much I appreciate your diligence.
Wednesday, July 29 (Jane) -- I've ordered a new padlock for the tool shed. I found one that doesn't require you to be a contortionist to see the dial. I'll install it as soon as it arrives.
Tuesday, July 28 (Celeste, Mickey)
Harvested, pulled remaining leeks from Benjamin(?) so it's cleared for planting. Editorial note: Thai basil is beautiful! (Posted harvest in garden log, will skip posting here.)
Cleaned up some of squash plants. Weed, weed, weed... Mickey was still weeding when I left.
Monday, July 28 (Gail)
I apologize for not posting this weeks updated "to-do" list in the shed. Please follow last weeks directions for harvesting and weeding. No need to fertilize this week.
Thanks!
Sunday, July 26 (Gail, Vicki, Debbie)
What a joy and relief to have the support of this incredible team! The garden looks amazing!! We harvested tomatoes, squash, beans and basil filling the last crate. I'll drop off more crates before Tuesday morning and try to get some small plastic produce bags as well. We emptied most of the weeds from the wheelbarrow into a bag which I took home today. I noticed the concentric circle damage; what is the cause and is there a remedy?
Thank you Celeste and Mickey for replacing and repairing the hose nozzle. I tightened the fitting on the hose bib today so no more water leaks. I have a lid for the bucket I brought over a couple of weeks ago so that should be functional going forward. The lock has been a source of frustration since the beginning. I have looked for a one piece lock with a longer shaft without success but I will step up my efforts. If anyone knows where to purchase that type, please let me know!
Looking forward to meeting Saundra on Tuesday!
Thanks to you all!
Thursday, July 23 (Suzanne, Chuck)
We harvested and trimmed back some of the squash. The lock on the cabinet needs replacing with one that has a longer hook -- it's a major frustration trying to get the thing to work. Also put the bag of squash trim in front of the trash area which was locked. I didn't write down the harvest because we're keeping a log at the garden...is the tally being used here?
Replies from Jane:
1) I'm sorry I failed to explain about the green waste. The trash company does not pick up green waste from the Temple. Gail takes it home to be picked up there. So please just bag it and leave it by the tool shed for Gail.
2) Yes, I noticed that we had two different systems going for reporting the harvest -- some people report it here, some log it in the little book at the garden. It's OK with me to log it only at the garden. I can get it from there at the end of the month.
3) I agree that the lock is a challenge. Gail -- can you provide a lock that's easier to use?
Tuesday, July 21 (Celeste, Mickey)
Harvest:
tomatoes - 5.5 lb
cherry tomatoes - 4 oz
squash - 4.5 lb
beans - .75 lb
chive/thai basil - 3 oz
Brought my old nozzle for the hose, but found that the previous nozzle is broken off at the threading. Mickey is going to come back today with a hacksaw to get the corroded piece off.
Weeded all around. The wheelbarrow was already full and didn't see any trash bin, so Mickey just hauled all the weeds away for this week. Please advise on proper disposal.
Reply from Jane -- Thanks for your good work, Celeste and Mickey! There are trash bags on the top shelf in the tool shed. You can put weeds in those. I think our Scout Ben got chased out of by rain on Sunday before he could do that. Gail hauls the bags home to put in her green waste, but if someone else wants to do so, that's a big help too! Thank you.
Left open bleach solution by water faucet for reuse by next crew. I will try to get back there today with a container that has a lid.
Number of tomatoes have concentric circle damage. Got some bagrada bugs and snails.
Sunday, July 19 - Vicki
First of all, I would like to thank Jane and our Master Gardener, Saundra for caring and taking on this awesome responsibility. The homeless vets and Temple Adat Shalom are forever in your debt. Thanks also to Ben for weeding. The rains brought many new weeds so we really appreciate it.
Can I make a request of anyone who reads this? The hose nozzle broke off this morning as I was fertilizing, so if anyone has a spare nozzle they wouldn't mind parting with, we could really use one. It is a pain to have to shut the water off each time we fill up the watering can.
Today's harvest:
Large tomatoes - 10.5 #
Cherry tomatoes - 2 #
Zucchini - 6.5 #
Yellow squash - 1.25 #
I fertilized all planted areas with FE and delivered the harvest to the North County Interfaith Center.
It is so nice having all of our volunteers - knowing that the veggies will be harvested regularly is very satisfying! Thank you all for stepping up!
Friday, July 17 (Jane)
More good news! Ben Nichols, Eagle Scout candidate and son of Backyard Produce Garden member Sandy Strong, has agreed to do some major weeding in the Interfaith Garden this weekend. Looking forward to seeing what he can accomplish. AND . . . the seeds have arrived for the fall planting -- broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, lettuce, kale, bok choi. Gail is going to plant them in seedling trays in Roy's greenhouse this week so the seedlings will be ready for the planned September 1 planting date.
Tuesday, July 14 (Jane)
We are delighted to welcome Saundra Pennington, a Certified Master Gardener, who has agreed to be our expert adviser for the garden. Thank you, Saundra! That will help us a lot. AND -- harvesters! -- we found out today that some of the tomatoes are YELLOW tomatoes (variety Lemon Boy), not red ones, so the instructions to wait for them to turn red are wrong. Bed 1 (Zebulum) and Bed 9 (Isaachar) contain some of these plants. The time to harvest them is when they turn bright yellow.
Tuesday, July 14 (Suzanne)
Harvest:
Tomato - 6.2 lb
Cherry tomato - 3 oz
Zucchini - 4.3 lb
Yellow squash - 7 oz
Trimmed the squash, removed some eaten tomatoes and took bags of trash to the trash bin.
Sunday, July 12 (Jane)
I stopped by the garden this morning to install this week's instruction sheet. Debi Pope was there, harvesting and weeding. Chuck Bakan came to see the garden and talk about Gail's idea of converting one or more beds to raised beds. Chuck will work on some ideas and then meet with Gail.
Friday, July 10 (Jane)
Just back from an excellent walk-through of the garden with Roy Wilburn, our mentor. Roy extends his congratulations to the team on your excellent work. He gave his guidance on each bed for the coming week, which I'll translate into instructions again, but the bottom line is -- keep harvesting, trim the lower leaves of the squash as you harvest, fertilize everything every other week (so not this week), and continue to make progress with the weeding.
We did a second round of the garden to plan ahead for the fall crops. Roy recommends broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, bok choy, lettuce, and kale. Based on his guidelines, I'll figure out how many seeds to order and place the order. Let me know if you'd like to participate in planting the seeds in trays in Roy's greenhouse to raise the seedlings for the garden. He'll show us how.
A bed-refurbishment day is planned for Saturday, August 15, 7:45-9:00 a.m. to prepare the beds for the next planting. Robin Kaufman has recruited a one-day team to do the refurbishment, but we're welcome to take part. Let me know if you'd like to do that. Refurbishment consists of adding a variety of soll amendments to prepare the soil for the next planting. Roy thinks half the beds will be ready to be refurbished at that time, and the other half a month later. NOTE that weed removal in advance of that day is our main job, so please keep after that big job.
On Tues, Sept 1 and T probably Thurs, Sept 3, we'll plant the fall seedlings in the refurbished beds. Then we WAIT and keep things tidy.
After Roy left, I did some weeding. I use our new hoe (thanks, Gail) to remove some of the ground-hugging weeds In Bed 2 (Asher) (I believe it's called spurge). Then I dug out some of the upright weeds in Bed 4 (Dan). For those, I used a hand tool at the garden tool shed labelled Fiskar Ergo-Friendly Weeder. It did quite well at loosening the soil so the entire tap root could be pulled up. I did about the first 3 feet of the Dan bed. Fun fun fun.
Thanks for all your great work.
Thursday, July 9 (Suzanne, Tammy, Rene)
Sprayed all squash with Serenade. Weeded and spotted numerous bagrada bugs living under the weed carpet.
Addendum by Jane: Chuck and Susie harvested and delivered to Interfaith. Harvest amounts are in the notebook at the garden, yet to be posted here.
Tuesday, July 7 (Celeste)
chives/thai basis: 2 oz
tomatoes: 1 lb
cherry tomatoes: .5 lb
zucchini: .75 lb
Left harvest in kitchen. Got some twine from them to bundle chives. Can we get bags?
Couldn't find Serenade; there is 3-in-1 organicide in shed. Use in place of Serenade?
Cleaned up under cherry tomatoes, weeded Gad. Bleached clippers.
Reply from Jane: Gail tried to buy Serenade at Home Depot but they don't have it. She's going to try at Grangetto's. Let's wait for that. I can drop off some plastic grocery bags if that's what you're picturing.
Sunday, July 5th (Gail)
It was amazing walking into the garden this morning and seeing all the work that has been done!! Thank you to all of the volunteers! This morning I planted the pumpkin seedlings and we harvested squash, tomatoes and green beans. The tomatoes are finally ripening and we should have a lot to harvest in the next few weeks, even without all of the plants that were pulled due to disease. Vicki fertilized with the fish emulsion and recorded that on the fabulous instruction sheet that Jane created.
Friday, July 3 (Suzanne)
Pruned all of the squash plants. This helps three fold: 1) several leaves with powdery mildew were removed, 2) it allows air through the plant and will discourage more powdery mildew, 3) it allows more plant energy to go towards fruit growth. Roy says to take the supporting leaf when harvesting a squash...this will keep the plant foliage thinned out. I also pulled another tomato plant infected with curly top disease...it looks like the one next to it is the next to go...sigh.
Here are some before and after pics of the squash:
Thursday, July 2 (Suzanne)
During our garden walkthrough with Roy this morning, he noticed that a couple of the tomato plants had curly top disease. We pulled the plants and threw them in the trash, not the compost pile (the same goes for any diseased plant material). Some of the literature says they should be placed in a bag and sealed up to prevent further contamination. For those of you who are interested, here's a picture and an article on the disease:
http://www.veggiegardener.com/diseases/curly-top-virus/
Thursday July 2nd. (posted by Gail Cohn)
A HUGE THANK YOU to Jane and all of the volunteers who came out to help this week! I truly am overcome with gratitude for your generosity of time and talent. With our collective efforts I believe this garden will reach its potential to be an amazing source of fresh, organic vegetables for the food insecure in North County. When it comes to creating a garden, it definitely "takes a village"!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Welcome! I want to thank Jane and the wonderful volunteers who have agreed to come tend to the Interfaith Garden. Temple Adat Shalom really appreciates the help in ensuring that the garden will continue to be successful.Also, a huge thank you to Gail Cohen whose tireless efforts grew the garden to its current stage. With community effort, I know this garden will be what we all dreamed it would become! - Vicki (volunteer)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Thursday, July 2 (Posted by Jane) -- Also present were Suzanne, Tammy, Sue Ann, Chuck, Larry, Rene, Gail, and mentor Roy Wilburn
We had a wonderful session in the garden this morning. Many thanks to all who came and to Roy Wilburn, who walked us through the garden and gave specific guidance on each bed.
Team members who could stay harvested the crops and also did trimming and weeding.
Chuck weighed and delivered the harvest to Interfaith Community Services.
Suzanne began trimming off the lower zucchini leaves.
Larry began trimming back the herbs to encourage new growth.
Gail will purchase Serenade, a spray that fights powdery mildew on squash.
Suzanne will purchase more clippers to help with the harvesting.
Gail will bring a bucket with lid that can serve as a reusable bleach bath for the tools (to keep from spreading any diseases in the garden).
I've written up the notes I took on Roy's guidance and turned them into instructions for the team. I'll post them inside the tool shed. Here's a copy -- click on Download to view it.
Everyone -- feel free to add thoughts, observations, and questions. Note that the weeding is a long-term project. No one is expecting instant results.
Thank you so much!
Tuesday, June 30 (Celeste)
yellow squash: 2.5 lb
zucchini: .75 lb
cherry tomatoes: 2 oz
(missed the beans!)
Left tally in the log book with scale, harvest on the table in kitchen, as agreed. Wiped clippers with cloth but didn't disinfect, no bucket yet.
Note: may not be worth 2 harvest days a week until tomatoes come in, but one of the days could be maintenance to get ahead of weeds.
Tuesday, June 30 - posted by Jane - Initial entry
Today was the first day that Backyard Produce volunteers helped in the Interfaith Community Garden. We congratulate Gail Cohn on all she has accomplished in the garden. Celeste came today, representing the Tuesday team. Gail walked Celeste and me through the garden. Suzanne stopped by with clippers and towels. Celeste stayed to harvest. It was already hot by 8:30! I wrote down some questions to run by Roy. I'll post the answers when get them. Gail has posted procedures inside the tool shed. She'll do another orientation on Thursday for the Thursday team. There isn't a lot to harvest yet -- several varieties of summer squash and a few bush beans -- but the tomatoes are coming along nicely. I welcome your observations. Tree picking team -- there is an apple tree on either side of the garden. You can include the apples in the harvest if you wish.